Click here to view the embedded video.

Credits:

Group ECD

Toby Talbot
Copywriter
Jay Hunt/Pete Gosselin

Art Director
Jay Hunt/Pete Gosselin

Producer
Kim Baldwinson

Managing Partner

Scott Wallace

Executive TV Producer

Judy Thompson
Account Director
Danielle Richards

Account Manager
Victoria Meo

Planner
David McIndoe

Mike Watson
SKY – Marketing Director

Tam Smith
SKY – Digital Product Marketing Manager

For those of you who never been a frat party, Beer Pong (AKA Beirut) is an extremely elaborate, skill-based drinking game where participants try to get a ping pong ball into the opposition’s cup. And, after a successful internal competition was held, Colenso’s managing director Nick Garrett did the honourable thing and invited its arch-rival DDB to partake.

To their credit, Garrett says DDB turned up with about 100 supporters, including a team of DDB-branded cheerleaders, as well as a bunch of Steinlager because they wouldn’t be seen dead drinking DB products. But, as expected, controversy has erupted and the knives are out, with both agencies claiming victory.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Ha!,” Mowday exclaimed loudly. “The fact is DDB beat Colenso three games to two, but yes, unfortunately, Nick Garrett and Sophie Martignier beat Justin Mowday and Ang Watson by just one cup.”

 A collective of two

To kick off both the New Year and Saatchi & Saatchi’s Creative Collective, executive creative director Antonio Navas has hired DDB’s ex-head of art Mike Davison and Sam Stradwick.

“Antonio is making good progress with our evolving creative model and will be announcing more hires soon. Part of this plan involves a much greater degree of collaboration between the Auckland and Wellington teams,” says chief executive Nicky Bell.

Davison has worked in the industry for more than 20 years (starting at the age of six as he likes to explain). He spent seven years in New York, the last three of which were at TBWA Chiat Day, and six years at DDB New Zealand, before heading off for some freelancing (including work on this ecostore billboard).

Stradwick has worked in a variety of Auckland design and ad agencies over the last few years and brings his natural design talent to help solve typography, illustration, layout and branding challenges.

“I cannot think of two better travel partners to go exploring the Holy Land of art and beauty than Sam and Mike. I learn from them every day,” says Navas.

Six pack  

There were some big changes in DDB’s creative department last year, with Andy Fackrell replacing Toby Talbot and Chris Schofield arriving on the scene as creative director. And just before Christmas it announced the appointment of six new team members within the creative department.

Gosselin (left) and Hunt

Jay Hunt and Pete Gosselin, previously at Colenso BBDO, have come onboard full time after a four month spell as freelancers. The duo met at Falmouth College in the UK in 2004 and have worked at some of the world’s top brands and London’s top agencies, including Lowe, M&C Saatchi and Leo Burnett before moving to New Zealand last year.

They were ranked as the Big Won’s #7 and #8 creatives in the UK in 2011 and created the Gunn Report’s 2nd most awarded ad worldwide in 2009 for The House of Cards. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Jay and Pete get funny and humour is a big part of what DDB does,” says Schofield. “Their Vodafone ‘Double Rainbow’ spot really stood out last year. They have freelanced at DDB for a few months and have quickly made themselves invaluable to the place. The only disappointment is their names. They’re the wrong way round. Pete sounds like an English name and Jay sounds Canadian. After some serious negotiations I’m pleased to say they’re happy to swap, which is good of them really.”

Kevin Bachtiar (left) and Sasha Arandelovic

In keeping with the ongoing hostage swapping of 2011, the junior team of Sasha Arandelovic and Kevin Bachtiar has also joined DDB from Colenso. The pair won AUT Creative Team of the Year 2010 and were winners of the Anno ‘State of Design’ Student Competition 2010. Their work for NZ International Comedy Fest gained huge kudos in the industry.

“Sasha and Kevin work hard and produce grown up ideas, pretty impressive considering they’re only 12,” says Schofield.

The final two additions to the family are Jake Barnes and Liz Richards, this year’s top performing Adschool team who won the inaugural DDB Scholarship, a fully salaried three month internship starting in January 2012.

Farewelling a wonderful man

Tributes are flowing for Wellington-based creative and art director Mike Boekholt, who died at the age of 46 in Hong Kong over Christmas. According to Campaign Brief, Boekholt was visiting his wife’s family in Hong Kong and passed away on December 27 after a bad case of flu turned into pneumonia.

Boekholt spent nine years at Bates Hong Kong and Bates Singapore, and worked in New Zealand at Leo Burnett Wellington and as a freelancer. He started Fluent.co.nz in 2001 and he also ran Memento productions, which specialised in capturing important corporate and family history.

Boekholt’s memorial service in New Zealand will be held at 1:30pm on Thursday, 26 January at St. Joseph’s Church, Mt. Victoria, Wellington.

Adshel’s latest addition 

Adshel’s last marketing director Elvira Lodewick headed off for pastures anew in December after three years with the company and Nicole McInnes has been named as her replacement. She will report to Adshel chief executive Rob Atkinson and take overall responsibility for all marketing planning and management in Australia and New Zealand.

She joins Adshel from American Express and has an extensive agency and client background, having worked for Dell, AAPT, Ogilvy & Mather, Emery Vincent and EKH Branding House.

McInnes says it was not only the opportunity to bring added creativity to the Adshel marketing team but a desire to “also deliver the numbers for clients by continuing to grow Adshel’s reach and frequency scores, which are the highest-ranking in the industry”.

“Digital, mobile and social media will be key focus areas to help drive cut-through and relevant engagement for our clients.”

“Very rarely do you find a marketing leader who has worked on both the client and agency side including several years in a creative capacity that saw her win a prestigious Cannes Lion and various other distinctions from Caples New York, ADMA and the London Advertising Awards,” says Atkinson.

Adshel’s director of sales, Peter Charlton, also welcomed McInnes’ arrival and looked forward to working with her to strengthen relationships with media partners and clients alike.

“Her impressive experience will undoubtedly help us further demonstrate the power of the Adshel network at delivering engaging and innovative out of home media solutions.”

She will be based in Sydney at the St Leonards office.

No more Boagilvy

The result of the Vodafone pitch is expected to be announced soon, but Michelle Boag, who took up the role of executive director at Ogilvy early last year, won’t be there for the champagne if the agency happens to win.

She wasn’t able to be contacted but left the company in December, moved to Waiheke and, according to LinkedIn, is now the director of Michelle Boag Ltd. Her departure adds to those of client services director Nikki McKelvie and ECD Damon O’Leary, who is still thought to be working for the agency but as a consultant.

X-woman

After a brief stint as the marketing and communications manager at Fairfax, Courtney Lambert has taken another role as marketing and communications manager of Xero based in Silicon Welly.

It’s a global role and she will be taking care of the marcomms requirements for the push into the US market, with a focus on the online side of things (blog/video/community).

Association hopping

After four years as the marketing and communications manager at the Magazine Publisher’s Association, Kath Hurley has resigned and accepted a role on the education and events team at the Marketing Association. She will finish up her MPA role at the end of January.

Executive director John McClintock confirmed that the association will be making a decision regarding a replacement within the next few weeks. All communications should go to mcclintock@mpa.org.nz.

In the money 

Wayne Pickup, who will be returning to New Zealand having worked in senior management roles with leading gaming technology and services company GTECH Corporation in Australia and Europe for over four years, has been appointed to succeed Todd McLeay as chief executive of NZ Lotteries.

Prior to joining GTECH, he worked for NZ Lotteries in various roles, latterly as chief information officer, “where he gained extensive hands-on experience in managing lottery operations, including the conversion of gaming systems and implementation of an internet gaming system”.

Chair of the board Judy Kirk says his broad management experience in the lotteries business, both in New Zealand and internationally, meant he was very well equipped to take on the chief executive position. She was confident that under his leadership NZ Lotteries would continue on its recent growth path leading to increased funding for community causes through the NZ Lottery Grants Board.

Pickup will take up the role on 19 March. In the meantime Warren Salisbury, the chief financial officer, will be the acting chief executive.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

After “a few crazy years” at The Sweet Shop, marketing executive Holly Dean has headed off for “a well deserved break, to hang out on the beach for a while, surf, read, paint, hippie around with my camera”, and do all the things she’s been a bit to busy for recently.

She plans to be back on the circuit freelancing around late February.

Joiner joins MediaWorks

After missing out on the TVNZ head of news and current affairs role, which went to the ex-director of news for Network 10 in Sydney, Ross Dagan, senior TVNZ news executive Cliff Joiner has shifted allegiance to the MediaWorks and taken a role as executive producer of The Marcus Lush Breakfast on RadioLIVE, where he will produce a team that includes Marcus, Hilary Barry and Martin Devlin.

“Cliff Joiner is a news heavyweight who brings a wealth of journalistic experience to our breakfast programme and RadioLIVE, which I’m very excited about,” RadioLIVE general manager, Jana Rangooni says.

Joiner leaves his current position as national bureau editor for TVNZ for the job, and will start at RadioLIVE in 2012.

“No one’s actually owning up to it but I detect the hand of Rory and Damian, the team behind the Steinlager white can billboards,” he says. “Proof that they’re not one hit wonders in outdoor.”

1) Favourite campaign that isn’t yours: Dialogue is never easy in ads. Try writing something meaningful in under a minute. Bloody hard. The inner monologue of the protagonist in NZTA’s ‘Ghost Chips’ delivered lines that were so acutely memorable they became part of the nation’s lexicon overnight. 1,500,000 hits on You Tube later and you have the best TVC of the year by a mile. Hats off to Duster, Holty and the team.

2) Favourite campaign that is yours: Steinlager ‘Believe’ for its audacity and simplicity. Proof that when an agency goes further upstream in its thinking, which we did, good things happen. I’d like to acknowledge Regan Grafton’s job selling this through too. Very much the unsung hero in the piece.

3) Least favourite campaign: 

Click here to view the embedded video.

4) Best brand: Our client list is a good place to start. For me, an arm wrestle between Mike Watson at Sky and Wendy Rayner at NZ Lotteries. Best out of three. Okay, five.

5) Best stoush: The ‘storm in a tea cup’ made the election almost interesting. I said almost.

6) Heroes: Steve Ayson. Directs Lotto Lucky Dog for us last year then knocks it out of the park for Clems this year with ‘Ghost Chips’. NZ’s best director. Someone give that man a decent film script. He’d kill it.

7) Villains: Ask three of the best agencies in town to spend a month on a massive pitch. Then give it to the incumbent because they’re the cheapest. Keep it classy, Auckland City Council.

8) Most memorable marketing moment: ‘Stain on the game’. Spectacularly inappropriate use of the All Blacks brand. That said, I respect anyone that tries to do something brave and fails spectacularly. As long as they learn from it of course.

1) Favourite campaign that isn’t yours: 

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) Favourite campaign that is yours: SKY Drill Sergeant, or Steinlager White Can, or Cadbury Share the Joy, or Lotto Lucky Dog. Can’t decide. It’s been a big year.

3) Least favourite campaign: Saatchi’s ‘abstinence’ campaign. A horrific recommendation to any All Blacks sponsor.

4) Best brand: Steinlager. It’s back, big time.

5) Best stoush: The Ogilvy senior management team vs Greg Partington. An attempted coup d’état reminiscent of ancient Rome.

6) Heroes: Willie Apiata. And Todd McLeay and NZ Lotteries for seeing a movement grow across the country where Kiwis were calling for that week’s Lotto winnings to go to Christchurch. They managed to create a special Lotto draw where half of that week’s sales (over $8 million), went straight to Christchurch. Pretty cool to see Kiwis en masse get behind the idea.

7) Villains: Adidas. They over-priced the shirts. And although they’ve delivered pride-inducing All Blacks campaigns previously, they seemed remarkably absent in our biggest rugby year ever.

8) Most memorable marketing moment: Seeing the All Blacks drink Steinlager white cans out of the Webb Ellis trophy.

On the Brady train

DDB’s big creative dog is getting set to head to London, and Dave Brady, DDB’s head of art and the creative director on the Cadbury account, is also off to join Whybin\TBWA\Tequila Sydney as its creative group head.

Brady, who worked at DraftFCB prior to DDB, has been awarded at Cannes Lions, One Show and Spikes Asia and he was also behind all four of DDB’s golds at Axis this year.

“I’ve had a fantastic time in New Zealand,” he says. “I’m lucky enough to have been surrounded by some seriously humbling talent. The willingness to make things happen, the passion for craft and drive for innovation I’ve experienced in New Zealand has been totally inspiring.”

Addy off to Aus

Former Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT and Colenso BBDO digital creative Mark Addy has taken the role of digital creative director at GPY&R Melbourne.

Addy joins from NZ Lotteries, where, for the past year, he was creative director/design director consultant and worked on the design and promotion of the MyLotto e-commerce site.

He has over 16 years of experience, has worked on a host of big brands and has been awarded by Axis, Effies, Clio, The One Show, South African Loeries and Cannes Cyber Lions.

Scherer and share alike 

The Listener has churned through a few deputy editors in recent years, and it’s got another one: multi-award-winning journalist Karyn Scherer, who joins after 15 years with APN, during which time she has been editor of the Daily Post in Rotorua and the launch editor of the Herald’s weekly financial affairs magazine the Business.

Earlier this year she won the Canon Print Media Award for best investigation for a series on the potential bidders for the Crafar farms.

The Listener is New Zealand’s highest-selling and best-read current affairs magazine, and editor Pamela Stirling says she is delighted to announce the appointment of such a high calibre journalist to the deputy editor’s position.

“Karyn’s distinguished career has included everything from crime and business journalism to Maori affairs and political reporting, and she brings all that valuable experience to the role. She is the winner of many prestigious awards and it is a great pleasure to welcome her to the magazine. The team are very much looking forward to working with her.”

Scherer starts in her role on January 16.

Brew-ha-ha

Independent Liquor is increasingly focusing on above the line advertising for many of its products (it’s currently having a bit of a stoush with DB over the use of the term Radler) and its marketing department has been bolstered this month with four senior appointments.

Tim Beck has been appointed to the position of marketing manager bourbon and will focus on building the Woodstock Bourbon and Cody’s brands. He brings a wealth of industry experience from his time spent time at Diageo and DB Breweries, working on the Guinness and Heineken brands. He most recently worked as a marketing manager at Fonterra Brands New Zealand.

Ilse Wolfe has been appointed to the role of marketing manager vodka and will lead the Vodka Cruiser and KGB portfolios as well as focus on launching and developing new market-leading vodka RTDs. She comes from Microsoft where in her role as partner marketing manager she led the launch of Windows Phone into the United Kingdom smartphone market.

Also newly appointed is Jason Naylor who has taken the position of trade marketing manager beer. In his new role, he will be responsible for the development, execution, and performance of all beer trade marketing investments and initiatives as well as the development of the trade marketing strategy.

He joins Independent Liquor from Hancock’s Wine and Spirits where he was senior brand manager for the Jack Daniel’s and Brown Forman brands.

Glen McCracken has also been appointed this month to the role of trade marketing manager RTDs and spirits and will take a lead in looking after brands such as Woodstock, Cody’s and Vodka Cruiser at a trade level. McCracken comes from Frucor Beverages where he was their national account manager for Progressive Enterprises and prior to this role, he worked as a national account manager in the petrol and convenience channel working with BP, Mobil and the Red Circle Independent Group.

Digi-additions

The Digital Leadership Group (DLG) has enlisted several new members into its ranks, as it has reassessed the needs of the market and the businesses it serves.

“With new blood comes new passion and we subsequently look forward to making some significant changes to CAANZ digital footprint,” says DLG chair Greg Whitham. “With more and more players in the digital communication industry there has never been a greater need for leadership in this space. The DLG aims to cater to those member agencies and clients that require informed direction and comment in this area.”

The new members are:

• Peeyosh Chandra – Saatchi & Saatchi
• Chris Macdonald – Affinity ID
• Nigel Hammersley – Y&R
• Aaron Goldring – Rapp Tribal
• Greg Wood – Publicis Digital

New calling 

John Fabrin, the chief executive of the Rhema Broadcasting Group, a position he has held for over 11 years, is stepping down in order to pursue a new calling.

“I have been so engaged in the mission for many years and from the very beginning knew an absolute call of God to it. In addition the Rhema team here is an outstanding group of people whom I love and respect. RBG is a unique and amazing work. God uses it to literally ‘change lives for good’ all over this land.”

Fabrin will remain with RBG until the new chief executive, who the board will appoint, takes up the leadership position, ensuring a smooth transition for all stakeholders.

Talbot says it feels counter-intuitive to leave the network, but he puts the recent change of heart entirely down to family. In the role he was given with DDB he would be the European regional creative commander and also maintain a similar role in the Asia Pacific region, which meant he would flitting about all over the place. And, with his parents getting older and the kids being moved over to go to school, he says he needed to be in London.

He admits the info about his plans to stay with DDB may have been released slightly hastily and we’ve heard a few rumours that a couple of DDB’s clients are unhappy about the switcheroo. But he says he doesn’t feel bad about leaving because the agency is in rude good health at the moment and he is confident the creative reins will be handled more than ably by his replacement Andy Fackrell and the new creative director Chris Schofield AKA ‘Not Steve Kane’. He is also confident some of the work coming out next year is some of the best they’ve done.

In part, this attitude may be attributable to the importance of the role of executive creative director to the fortunes of clients. Word is Talbot pretty much won the Cadbury pitch last year after coming up with the idea for The Sound of Joy and, as he says, ever since the days of Bill Bernbach, DDB has believed creativity is the most powerful business force there is, which means who’s at the top is an important consideration for clients.

Long term, he sticks by his statements about wanting to come back to New Zealand, where he has lived for 15 years, and he hopes the first guys he’ll see about a job when he returns will be Sandy Moore and Marty O’Halloran, who Talbot says have been very gracious about his decision.

“This is my home and the kids are coming back for university,” he says. But at the same time he doesn’t want his new employers to think he’ll be a fly-by-nighter and he “wants to make a good go of it” in the very tough London market where he first cut his advertising teeth.

Talbot leaves on January 4 and he replaces Damon Collins.

He will oversee the RKCR/Y&R creative department, working closely with Mark Roalfe, the agency’s chairman, as well as Alison Hoad and Ben Kay, the recently appointed joint chief executives.

“We scoured the globe for the very best creative talent and were really excited to find Toby,” says Roalfe. “The standard of the work he has led at DDB is fantastic, but most of all he is a very charming and down to earth chap.”

And we couldn’t agree more.

More than 700 entries in 30 categories underwent two days of scrutiny from the world’s top creative directors for the 34th John Caples Awards. And the winners will be announced at a ceremony in March.

And the Kiwi finalists are:

AMBIENT/GUERRILLA MARKETING

Beautify Your City – A Rubbish Idea
Colenso BBDO

Carmonica, DraftFCB

Angels, Publicis Mojo

BRANDED WEBSITE

New World Easter Hunt, .99

DIRECT MAIL DIMENSIONAL, OVER $5 COST-PER-PIECE .

Yellow Apples, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

Fujikistan, Republik Communications

DIRECT MAIL DIMENSIONAL, UNDER $5 COST-PER-PIECE

Vacuum Cleaner Bags, DraftFCB

DIRECT MAIL, CUSTOMER RETENTION

Big Thank You, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

DIRECT MAIL, FLAT (1-500 PIECES)

Knitted Envelope, DraftFCB

CAMPAIGN MICROSITE

FJ Top to Bottom off road – 60 Years of Land Cruiser, AIM Proximity

Doggelganger, Colenso BBDO

MOBILE APP

Impulse Saver, Colenso BBDO

VIRAL VIDEO MARKETING

Rear View Girls, Colenso BBDO

ONLINE

Living Office Banner, Special Group

OUT OF HOME

Yellow Local, Colenso BBDO

PRINT

Yellow Local, Colenso BBDO

PRINT COLLATERAL, NON-MAIL

Beautify Your City – A Rubbish Idea, Colenso BBDO

EFFIE Awards, DraftFCB

RADIO AND PODCAST

Sports Stories Before Bedtime, DraftFCB

RETENTION/LOYALTY, NON-MAIL

Looking good in Yellow, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

SOCIAL MEDIA

Maxit Jobs, Colenso BBDO

Shortland Street Summer Fling, Colenso BBDO

The Schmancy App, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

Say No to Naff Facebook, DraftFCB

SPCA Make Friends, DraftFCB

DIRECT RESPONSE TV

Don’t Bail Out, Clemenger BBDO Ltd

Yellow Local, Colenso BBDO

INTERACTIVE CAMPAIGN

FJ Top to Bottom off road – 60 Years of Land Cruiser, AIM Proximity and Saatchi & Saatchi

Share the Joy, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

Welcome the World, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN

What’s Your Dulux Colour of New Zealand?, Clemenger BBDO

Impulse Saver, Colenso BBDO

Skate Pinball, Colenso BBDO

V Paintball, Colenso BBDO

Believe, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

Share the Joy, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

Warnie Chicken Bites, DDB Group Rapp Tribal New Zealand

LAUNCH CAMPAIGN

FJ Top to Bottom off road – 60 Years of Land Cruiser, AIM Proximity and Saatchi & Saatchi

Skate Pinball, Colenso BBDO

Doggelganger, Colenso BBDO

Impulse Saver, Colenso BBDO

BEST ART DIRECTION

Fujikistan, Republik Communications

BEST COPYWRITING

Fujikistan, Republik Communication

CREATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY

Doggelganger, Colenso BBDO

Impulse Saver, Colenso BBDO

Show us your Cleve-age

JWT’s creative director Peter Ogden departed recently to head back to Australia. And Cleve Cameron, who took up the creative director role with Affinity ID in March and before that was at Toot Group, has been announced as his replacement.

“Cleve thinks of the genuinely new,” says managing director Simon Lendrum. “His willingness to explore beyond the traditional has repeatedly resulted in great work, often ahead of its time. As consumers become ever-more indifferent to brands and advertising [as his first blog post on simon-says.co.nz shows], we need to be increasingly creative and resourceful to overcome this apathy. Cleve is a genuine creative force, and I’m looking forward to putting him together with Jacqueline Smart, our Head of Strategy, and seeing what results.”

Originally from Wellington, Cameron has worked for a wide range of agencies on both sides of the Tasman including Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington, Naked Sydney, BMF, Affinity ID. While at BMF, Cameron won an Integrated Gold Cannes Lion for his work for Goodman Fielder.

Cameron’s further creative endeavours extend to music recording, short film production and a kerrazee novel called The Beop.

More Peads

Business growth across Pead PR’s brand activities and in the digital arena has led to several new appointments and a promotion, with Belinda Abernethy joining as group account director overseeing its beauty and food teams, Greg Hay appointed as senior account manager in the sports and entertainment team and Polly Atkins starting as account manager on the tech team.

Abernethy has more than 20 years’ experience in the PR industry across corporate communications, consumer public relations and a stint in the political office of the Mayor of Auckland City. And Hay is a former television journalist and executive producer and he is also an award-winning freelance director and producer of documentaries and prime time television.

“The fact is we are known for our boutique style and to succeed at keeping it fresh for bigger mainstream brands as well as smaller heat-seeking brands we need brand focused specialists,” says managing director Deborah Pead. “Digital is a growing part of what brand PR delivers and together with social media it’s responsible for new growth in the industry. Greg brings us not only expert knowledge and news media relations but also digital production which complements our suite of services and helps us deliver to the video explosion in online traffic. An example of this was setting up and filming the haka flash mob stunt for Maori Television during the Rugby World Cup. He had that on YouTube ahead of news media.”

In other news, group account director Candice Robertson has been appointed to the role of director of client services.

Pead says she will be sharing her management responsibilities with Robertson, who continues in her role as group account director of the lifestyle team and also takes over the sports and entertainment team.

Events, dear boy, events

Haystac New Zealand has announced the launch of Haystac Events, a division dedicated to delivering strategic, creative PR events backed up with a new customised measurement module. Jo Bennett appointed to lead the new entity.

Bennett, who has over nine years’ experience in the world of events and started off as an interior designer, comes to Haystac from Brand Spanking, and prior to that she spent several years working as an account director on the events team at Mango/DDB Group. During her career, she has managed significant events on a grand scale for the likes of GlaxoSmithKline, Lion Nathan, ANZ, Air New Zealand and McDonald’s.

“An event is a PR channel that needs to be selected for the right purpose,” she says. “An effective event is designed to achieve specific, measurable objectives with key stakeholders. A party is a fine idea if it’s so much more than that – if it delivers meaningful, quantifiable engagement.”

The agency will be rolling out a new measurement module aligned to the events division offer. It is fully customised to suit each client’s needs and  covers a raft of return on investment and return on objectives metrics. Bennett will be working across the Haystac client portfolio on event strategy, delivery and measurement, she will also be leading the growth of the division and associated new business.

“The PR event is a unique beast, it is designed to engage important stakeholders and often the media, and happily I think we have found just the pro for the job,” says Haystac New Zealand’s general manager Fleur Postill. “Jo has extensive experience devising and managing a wide range of PR events, and she’s a fantastic fit with our agency culture. Events have been a large part of our campaign delivery over the past two years, and feature heavily in the year to come, so Haystac Events is a natural next step for us.”

Staite of play 

Synovate, which is soon to become Ipsos after its sale was approved, has appointed renowned researcher Adi Staite to the role of executive research director to complement the recent recruitment of market researcher Duncan Stuart

Staite joins Synovate after an eclectic and distinguished career in marketing, research and advertising agency planning in both the UK and New Zealand, including senior roles with Colenso, Blackwood King (now BCG2) and, for the last four years, with his own planning and research consultancy, Bamboo NZ. His research and planning has helped win Effectiveness Awards in the UK, Europe and NZ, and he’s also been a judge for the MRSNZ awards for the past six years.

“Like most planners, I’ve always had a healthy disregard for most research – the type that’s ‘interesting’, but ultimately unusable, or that tries to force-fit behaviour – or even worse, creativity – into neat boxes and models. Synovate, and its previous incarnation Research Solutions have always been the exception however, and I’ve always been a fan. They’ve always ‘told it like it was’ – understanding the need to be open, flexible and innovative in delivering what agencies and clients truly needed to allow them to do what they do best.

“Ian’s assembled a great team that I’ve admired from afar over the years and I’m looking forward to working alongside them to continue to deliver research that truly inspires. Dragging me away from the independence of self-employment was always going to require a great opportunity, and this is probably the only one that could have done it. Frankly, I’m dead excited… and my wife’s ecstatic that I’ll be out of the house.”

Ian Mills, Synovate’s managing director, says Staite brings a diverse range of skills to Synovate, combining the foundation of a maths and stats degree, client-side marketing experience, an MBA, and years of developing communications and operational strategies for some of the UK and New Zealand’s biggest brands, during which he’s always been a stickler for running his own research”.

The children: our future 

As this cheeky email stunt to promote the AWARD school end of year show attests, DDB is keen on snaffling talented youngsters. And it’s decided to walk the talk by offering a scholarship to a pair of young creatives from Media Design School. And the AdSchool student team of Liz Richards and Jake Barnes (son of Daniel) were announced as the inaugural winners at the end of year show.

The award, which consists of a three month paid placement at DDB, is a “definite leap into the 21^st century for the placement system” according to course leader Kate Humphries.

DDB’s Toby Talbot and new creative director Chris Schofield selected the winning team after a review of AdSchool’s current crop of Media Design School books.

“This is an industry founded on fresh thinking and there’s no better place to find it than at the Media Design School,” says Sandy Moore, DDB’s chief executive. “An award like this can springboard young creative into a great career while helping to keep our industry vital and progressive.”

DDB’s sponsorship runs until 2014, with an option to renew. All recipients have the opportunity to be kept on as permanent staff at the end of the placement.

New Zealand in the crosshairs

Michele Cuputo (Reckitt Benckiser), Grant Leach (MD Crossmark NZ), Mark Hemmings (Galderma), Kevin Moore (CEO Crossmark).

Australasia’s largest retail marketing services company Crossmark has opened its new office in Takapuna as part of an aggressive new business drive, which saw the recent appointment of a Grant Leach as managing director and executive restructure.

More than 80 guests attended the office’s opening event, where the ribbon was cut by councillor Ann Hartley and CROSSMARK Australia & New Zealand chief executive Kevin Moore.

“Our commitment to a larger office space with room to grow signifies our long-term commitment to the ongoing expansion of the business in the region,” says Leach. “We look forward to working with global retailers and manufacturers to improve category sales for clients across all retail channels.”

The office relocation coincides with the rebranding and relaunch of the Crossmark Australia and New Zealand websites (www.crossmark.co.nz), which will feature a range of retail case studies.

The company has more than 2,000 staff in Australia and New Zealand in the grocery, pharmacy, hardware, telecommunications, home entertainment/consumer electronics, specialist retail and discount department stores and its current clients include AB Foods, Kraft Cadbury, Arnott’s, Kimberly Clark, Vital Foods, Chubb, Sony, Disney, Hewlett Packard, Panasonic and MYOB.

American expansionism

The Sweet Shop has announced Andrew Traines, who has executive produced for high calibre directors likes David Fincher, David Kellogg, Mark Romanek, Andrew Douglas, David Slade, Malcom Venville and Garth Davis, as its managing director of US operations.

“The Sweet Shop offers a supremely talented roster, global support unlike any other company with whom I’ve been associated and an enthusiasm for great work and service that is downright contagious,” he says. “My main challenge is to grow their presence in the U.S. and with the help of executive producer Tracy Mays, market the current excellent global roster adding to it top U.S. talent that are up to the level we expect.”

Traines’ ability to nurture talent, facilitate and build teams landed him the role as executive producer at Propaganda, co-head for the commercial division at Anonymous where he initiated V3, Anonymous’s integrated media division, along with establishing internationally based production company BRW USA.